The Promise
"Together again
It would feel so good to be
In your arms
Where all my journeys end..."
~Tracy Chapman, "The Promise"
The song has no meaning connected to any of the exes. None. However, I can remember where I first heard it. I was house sitting at a really cool little cottage on a really cool little lake and found the CD. That song played and I cried. Big, fat crocodile tears. And I have nearly every time I've heard it since. Sometimes I can make it most of the way through. Until the last verse (which I kindly copied and pasted above). And then it hits. Hard. And somewhat relentlessly. Then I play the song again and maybe again. I'm not sure what it is. The idea? Yes. I think that's it. The idea of a love so enduring that a promise made is a promise kept. Across space, time, and eternity. Maybe it was my first brush with the essence of soulful love. Or maybe it was the idea of a journey. And a journey's end.
"I'll find my way back to you. If you'll be waiting..." One day my latest novel, a story of two lives bound by faith, fate, love, and a journey across time and into eternity (hey, cool book jacket stuff), will explain everything. It's fictional, my first extended stab the genre (and very much stymied since The Chicken Pox Vacation ended in February 2009), but in a way it's not. It comes from an idea that has driven me forward through all that should have held me back. Truly none of it is me or mine. It's not my story. Not at all. Not even close. It's a wish. Maybe. To find a love so strong and abiding that faith never falters and always believes? To endure a journey and finally find home? Quick window on Stacee's World... In those last two sentences, you will find the root of five of my ten tattoos. So, is it my story or My Story? It's my story. And my ticket into Oprah's Book Club, if I'm lucky.
I know it may seem like I've read one many Nicholas Sparks novels (Please don't make me. Ugh... I may puke). It's an idea that's been brewing in me for awhile. Romance mixed with faith, two of my favorite topics, in novel form. I'm stuck and looking for divine inspiration. One of these days I'll pull it out and write another section. Then another and another. Tracy Chapman popping up on the iTunes might be a start. I think about the story on and off as the days go by. Something comes to me and I file it away. The beginning came in a rush and I guess I'm waiting for the next rush. I'm as anxious to know what happens to the characters as the lucky few who have read the first couple of chapters. It's a novel tentatively titled "Beloved Wife" (listen to the similarly titled Natalie Merchant song to understand more about my motivation and inspiration) that you one day you will find it at your local bookseller (please note that all Blog "subscribers" and "followers" will receive a free, signed copy).
Yep, I think that's God's way of telling me to get to work. Tomorrow, once I finish a couple of errands, I'm going to start working on it again. So, if you're one of the ones who have been waiting since February to find out whatever became of Sarah and Grace and Sarah-Grace and Hope, you're in luck. In the meantime I'm going to take a sip of rum, listen to the song once more on iTunes, and try not to cry one more time.
It would feel so good to be
In your arms
Where all my journeys end..."
~Tracy Chapman, "The Promise"
The song has no meaning connected to any of the exes. None. However, I can remember where I first heard it. I was house sitting at a really cool little cottage on a really cool little lake and found the CD. That song played and I cried. Big, fat crocodile tears. And I have nearly every time I've heard it since. Sometimes I can make it most of the way through. Until the last verse (which I kindly copied and pasted above). And then it hits. Hard. And somewhat relentlessly. Then I play the song again and maybe again. I'm not sure what it is. The idea? Yes. I think that's it. The idea of a love so enduring that a promise made is a promise kept. Across space, time, and eternity. Maybe it was my first brush with the essence of soulful love. Or maybe it was the idea of a journey. And a journey's end.
"I'll find my way back to you. If you'll be waiting..." One day my latest novel, a story of two lives bound by faith, fate, love, and a journey across time and into eternity (hey, cool book jacket stuff), will explain everything. It's fictional, my first extended stab the genre (and very much stymied since The Chicken Pox Vacation ended in February 2009), but in a way it's not. It comes from an idea that has driven me forward through all that should have held me back. Truly none of it is me or mine. It's not my story. Not at all. Not even close. It's a wish. Maybe. To find a love so strong and abiding that faith never falters and always believes? To endure a journey and finally find home? Quick window on Stacee's World... In those last two sentences, you will find the root of five of my ten tattoos. So, is it my story or My Story? It's my story. And my ticket into Oprah's Book Club, if I'm lucky.
I know it may seem like I've read one many Nicholas Sparks novels (Please don't make me. Ugh... I may puke). It's an idea that's been brewing in me for awhile. Romance mixed with faith, two of my favorite topics, in novel form. I'm stuck and looking for divine inspiration. One of these days I'll pull it out and write another section. Then another and another. Tracy Chapman popping up on the iTunes might be a start. I think about the story on and off as the days go by. Something comes to me and I file it away. The beginning came in a rush and I guess I'm waiting for the next rush. I'm as anxious to know what happens to the characters as the lucky few who have read the first couple of chapters. It's a novel tentatively titled "Beloved Wife" (listen to the similarly titled Natalie Merchant song to understand more about my motivation and inspiration) that you one day you will find it at your local bookseller (please note that all Blog "subscribers" and "followers" will receive a free, signed copy).
Yep, I think that's God's way of telling me to get to work. Tomorrow, once I finish a couple of errands, I'm going to start working on it again. So, if you're one of the ones who have been waiting since February to find out whatever became of Sarah and Grace and Sarah-Grace and Hope, you're in luck. In the meantime I'm going to take a sip of rum, listen to the song once more on iTunes, and try not to cry one more time.
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